Have they told you that life is a beach, or a bowl of cherries?

Have they mentioned you may have sand in your shoes or pits in the stomach?

Yes, there are side-effects to living on a beach and eating cherries ;).

All right, let's get grounded and productive.

The perception of what life is all about has been snowballing into a rather colossal clump of stress for many people.

The faster the speed of life, the faster the clump rolls like mad over the natural ambitions, dreams, relationships, and plain existence of a human being.

There are easy ways of transforming the ugly clump into an atmosphere of relaxation.

Implementing the transformational methods, however, does take discipline, dedication, and willingness to reach beyond the 'old same old'.

The transformation magically brings meaning back into what life is truly about as a perfectly fitting reward.

How to put life back into your years?

It almost always involves moving in the opposite direction to the one the general crowd is taking.

Let's have a look!

1) Change your beliefs and values - if the old ones don't work. One way to change an old, "stinking" belief is to associate loads of pain with it. A quicker, less costly way is to start changing it mentally every day. The more costly way is when circumstances force the change.

Another method of changing a belief is to start doubting its validity. Doubt anything long enough and guess what happens? It's no longer valid. Then, you can substitute the "old" with new and power-install it using a strong, supporting emotion linked to it.

2) Growing up! - in a child-ISH sense may help. Remain child-LIKE, of course! It's most embarrassing to witness a distinguished adult throwing a temper tantrum. That's a stressful act for all involved, isn't it? If you need to feel what really matters in life, visit a busy hospital for a few days and quietly observe.

3) Simplify - anything you can in your life. Just like the foundations of any structure, simplicity carries an inherent sturdiness and longevity to it. Whatever complicates or puts undue demand on your life, drags you down, or gives you less free room to breathe - it's time to simplify it now!

4) Changing "living on the edge" into "living in a range" - may surprise you. Living on the "edge" has become an extremely limiting place to thrive in. It's become very unforgiving (even for the most macho person). Living in a "range" gives you room and flexibility in life when you need it, or ... when you just plain want it.

5) A point about saying - "NO" - is misunderstood. You have known "how" to say "NO" since forever. The tricky point about "NO" is being trained in "when" to say it. If somebody's laziness asks you to do it for them - it's a good time to say "NO". If you are doing something to please someone while it causes you discomfort or pain of any kind - that's another good example of "when" to say "NO".

6) Living fully instead of expensively - is the trick to taming stress over money. Living expensively also keeps you on the edge. Hard earned money is easier to handle then 'effortlessly' created debt. Stretched credit card living is an example to investigate. Once you discover the power of cash- buying only, you may start wondering what took you so long. Money is your friend.

7) Program yourself with what you want in life - just like with music. When you want to listen to classical music, it wouldn't work if you played a rap music disc, would it? For the tune you want on the outside, the same tune has to play on the inside. Use books, discs, tapes, videos ... even relationships that are congruent with your empowering goals and dreams. Is "11 o'clock" news the programming for the goals & dreams you want?

Now, how come we are so sure about the suggestions?

Our true-story book explains how we used them and more to conquer stress, burn-out, and post-trauma stress disorder (PTSD).